Greater & Greener in Denver

On Monday, 22 July 2019, I had the great honour to be a presenter/panelist at the opening plenary session of the Greater & Greener conference in Denver, Colorado. Representing the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, I spoke about Reconciliation at the Park Board and our Biodiversity accomplishments. I shared the stage with Yvonne Lynch, an Urban Greening and Climate Resilience Strategist, and Luis Andres Orive, Environmental Director, City of Victoria Gasteiz, Spain.

Other Vancouver speakers at the conference included Dave Hutch, Director of Planning and Park Development, Rena Soutar, Reconciliation Planner, and Catarina Gomes, Park Planner

It was an amazing and exciting conference. I had the opportunity to learn and network with urban park professionals from Canada, the United States, and countries around the world. The take away for me is that Vancouver is at the leading edge of park development, biodiversity, and reconcilation work.

Greater & Greener is the Premiere International Urban Parks Conference

For more than a decade, Greater & Greener has been the leading international conference for urban park leaders, city planning and design professionals, public officials, advocates, funders, and innovators to explore the role of parks and recreation in addressing some of the biggest challenges facing 21st Century cities. The highly curated sessions, workshops, and tours facilitate an honest dialogue around solutions, cross-sector and peer-to-peer networking, and tools for building successful park partnerships.
 
Greater & Greener 2019: Exploring Natural Connections is presented by City Parks Alliance, the only independent, nationwide membership organization dedicated solely to urban parks. The conference brings together more than 1,000 leaders from parks and recreation, public works, transportation, city planning and other municipal agencies, mayors, advocacy and funding organizations, community leaders, designers and landscape architects, real estate developers and other stakeholders involved in city building.

Greater & Greener explores how urban parks can be designed, developed, programmed, funded, and sustained to meet increasing city demands. By expanding the discussion to new audiences and emphasizing the relevance of urban parks to engage leaders from across sectors, Greater & Greener aims to inspire reimagining of parks in a broad new context of economic, environmental, and social opportunities.